Just a few impres­si­ons of the beau­tiful arc­tic win­ter, wit­hout many words.

A trip to Dunérbuk­ta on the east coast. Icy cold, about -25 degrees. And a litt­le remin­der of why you should always have a sho­vel with you in the snow (the second reason being the dan­ger of ava­lan­ches, of cour­se).

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

And ano­ther trip to beau­tiful Elve­ne­set in Sas­senfjord. You don’t always have to go far…

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

Make this page nicer

And more news from the ‘Make this page nicer’ sec­tion:

• Faks­evå­gen in Lom­fjord: the beau­tiful moun­tain hike on the edge of Hin­lo­pen Strait.
• Hingst­s­let­ta, also in Lom­fjord. It used to be a polar bear para­di­se a while ago, as the pic­tures will show.
• Sig­rid­hol­men, a litt­le pearl of natu­re in Kongsfjord.

And what else

And what else? Oh yes, the stocks are being rep­le­nis­hed. The enti­re sel­ec­tion of Sval­bard kit­chen slats from Lon­gye­ar­by­en is now back in stock.

Kit­chen boards from Lon­gye­ar­by­en:
now all available again in the spitsbergen-svalbard.com shop 🙂

Just last week, the clo­sure of mine 7, Norway’s last coal mine on Spits­ber­gen, which was ori­gi­nal­ly plan­ned for next sum­mer, was the sub­ject of dis­cus­sion not only in Lon­gye­ar­by­en, but also in poli­ti­cal cir­cles in Oslo.

After geo­lo­gists recent­ly dis­co­ver­ed the foot­prints of a pan­t­o­don in the mine, the aut­ho­ri­ties reac­ted quick­ly to the sen­sa­ti­on: they plan to app­ly for mine 7 to be lis­ted as a UNESCO World Heri­ta­ge Site and to turn the mine into a muse­um so that the sen­sa­tio­nal find can be per­ma­nent­ly dis­play­ed to the public.

Incon­spi­cuous at first glan­ce, but a sen­sa­ti­on for geo­lo­gists:
Traces of a Pan­t­o­don in mine 7.

The pan­t­o­don, a mammal from the Palaeo­ge­ne (ear­ly Ter­tia­ry), the coal age of cen­tral Spits­ber­gen, is the oldest evi­dence of a mammal in this part of the Arc­tic. Remains of tree trunks, roots and bran­ches can also be seen in the area.

Wea­ve of bran­ches and roots in mine 7.

So mine 7 has a future bey­ond this sum­mer that ever­yo­ne, inclu­ding oppon­ents of coal mining, can look for­ward to.

Fos­si­li­sed tree trunk from the Palaeo­ge­ne era.